Job Instruction Sheet
Date of Work: ██2 Year, September 5
Task Name: Interview with an Unknown Anomalous Entity
Director: Responsible Researcher, Oliver Smith
Person in Charge: Senior Researcher, Sophia Brown
—
Anomalous phenomena that had been inactive have given rise to a new anomalous entity from the dimension gate. Identify the entity’s identity and intentions, and collect as much information as possible.
—
“…Hah.”
In a space that seemed no different from an ordinary office, a blonde woman sighed deeply and slumped her head onto her desk.
Her name was Sophia, last name Brown. Years had passed since she began working at the Abnormal Phenomena Research Department, and while she had shaken off some of her rookie awkwardness, a piece of paper just flown in from her superior had her trembling with fear, almost embarrassing her accumulated experience.
“What’s up all of a sudden? Sophie, you look like you’re ready to drop dead since the crack of dawn,” a voice came from the seat beside her. It was her junior, Arthur.
Despite being a junior, their start dates were not far apart, and because of her timid personality, he didn’t treat her like a senior. However, if one were to ask her who she felt closest to in this workplace, she would undoubtedly point to this somewhat frivolous yet friendly guy who had approached her first.
After a few seconds of silence following his greeting, and despite being slumped over, she let out a small groan, stretched, then turned her head toward Arthur, glanced at him a bit uncomfortably, and began explaining the reason for her sigh.
“Why? Well, it’s because of this job instruction sent by Researcher Oliver.”
Sophia, still in her slumped position, handed over the document to Arthur. Normally, fatigue and the subsequent dark circles under her eyes were an inevitable outcome for researchers, but she looked even more tired than usual while handing it over.
“What’s it say? Is he asking you to write another status log for a week?”
“Honestly, that would ease my mind more than this. Look at this. Today, I have an interview with an anomalous entity lined up,” she replied.
“What’s the big deal about interviewing? It’s not like it’s that hard,” Arthur remarked.
“Interviewing is different depending on who the subject is,” she shot back.
As Junior Researcher Arthur received the binder his senior had shoved towards him, he looked at her with a hint of confusion. It was true that talking to “things” categorized as abnormal phenomena wasn’t always a joyous experience, but there weren’t many entities within this base that would suddenly attack out of nowhere if they got their feelings hurt, right?
Especially, considering Sophia had usually been very strict about her work responsibilities.
“I mean, is it because of Instance 1054? I recognize that he’s kind of quirky, but there’s no need to look like you’re about to die—”
Then Arthur glanced at a word written on the paper, and he finally realized why his senior was so shaken up.
“—Wait a minute. What’s this?”
And no wonder, the word written on that paper referred to one of the most dangerous entities he had learned about since joining.
“New anomalous entity? And it appeared from a dimension gate?”
A new anomalous entity. To put it simply, it referred to an entity arising from a type of abnormal phenomenon that had never been seen before. Considering what the Abnormal Phenomena Research Department mostly handled, interviews with entities that had very little information were laden with endless dangerous possibilities.
“Sophia, did you leave out the description ‘which previously caused catastrophic human casualties’?” he pointed out.
“No kidding! Now’s not the time for casual chatter. This is serious, right?!”
“Exactly. So if anything goes wrong, please make sure to dispose of the hard disk in my house,” she added, half-joking.
“Even in this situation, making foolish jokes is so typical of you, Sophie….”
Arthur stared at her, a bit disgusted, but then felt a sudden pang of fear, realizing her concern was not unfounded.
It made sense because the dimension gate was treated as especially dangerous even in this base, right? The past incident that resulted in casualties numbering in the tens of thousands was something everyone in the other bases was familiar with.
While that had happened a long time ago, and the specific details had been shielded from those of lower ranks like him, the fact that a country’s civil war was fabricated to cover up an abnormal phenomenon incident shocked him.
“Are you sure it’s alright? What’s the danger level? Are there proper safety measures in place?”
Arthur asked worryingly.
Even though he’d seen plenty of people with inhuman abilities while working here, Sophia was just an ordinary human after all.
Compared to those on the field, she might not seem like much, but even so, facing unstudied anomalies with just their bodies made them far too fragile and easy targets in comparison.
“Wow, that sounded like a dad sending his kid on errands for the first time,” Arthur quipped.
“Seriously?! Now’s not the time for stupid jokes!” Sophia shouted back.
Seeing his senior practically in stitches, Arthur realized she was teasing him and scratched his head in annoyance.
“Come on, don’t worry too much. It’s an inactive phenomenon after all.”
“Sure, it might have been inactive, but now it’s active again, right?” she pointed out.
“Don’t you keep up with the history of abnormal phenomena? After that incident, the mysterious energy the dimension gate had ran out, so it was concluded that even if other entities were summoned, it wouldn’t be like before.”
“How can I remember everything about some research that was concluded before I joined?”
Arthur mumbled quietly, stretching his words.
It wasn’t an inaccurate statement. Even in this base where nothing was harmless, there were still rankings.
Nuclear bombs and dynamite are both dangerous, but if you had to manage one, wouldn’t you prioritize the nuclear bomb?
An inactive phenomenon could be seen as similar to dynamite with the detonator removed.
For someone who had to read thousands of handling instructions for nuclear bombs, would they want to spend their precious time studying the safety guidelines for dynamite without its detonator?
“Well, that’s a relief… wait a minute.”
He felt somewhat relieved after learning that what his senior was facing wasn’t a horrifying monster but just a regular work task, but then he suddenly realized something.
“Sophie, you knew all that beforehand, didn’t you? Why were you looking so down before?”
It was a reasonable question.
Logically, a person who already knows the answers to their worries wouldn’t have to show so much anxiety. Yet, what he had witnessed earlier was akin to a person who has a scientific certainty that ghosts don’t exist being terrified of them.
“….”
Silence fell upon them.
In that stillness, he realized that this conversation had begun with the intention of teasing him by his senior.
“Wow, I just realized something. Arthur, you’re surprisingly thick-headed.”
A small laugh escaped Sophia’s lips again.
Tricked by her clear act of deceiving him, he vowed that if anything ever happened to her, he would make sure her hard disk got sent to the funeral.
—
What are abnormal phenomena?
In dictionary terms, it refers to something outside of the natural intellect inherent in nature or phenomena that transcend nature and reflect upon the world. However, to put it in simpler terms, you could cite examples such as ghosts, spirits, monsters, or urban legends.
So, while sightings have been consistently mentioned throughout history, these phantoms—having never been proven scientifically or physically evidenced—are what we refer to.
Phantoms…
Well, that’s not entirely wrong.
Unless you’re a conspiracy theorist clinging to outdated rumors, or a child kept awake by tales of monsters under the bed from their parents, who would seriously believe in such folklore?
While it’s not entirely impossible for someone to exist, most people would surely lean more towards believing such things do not exist.
In this day and age where things aren’t caught on camera and phenomena aren’t scientifically proven, it’s likely that the governments and scientists of the world would be the first ones rushing in with their eyes ablaze if such things really did exist.
However, what many of these people overlook is that the causes behind these phenomena are usually not easy to handle by humans and that simply not being hostile towards them is a stroke of luck.
Indeed,
To say it plainly, abnormal phenomena actually did exist.
Ironically enough, even in an age of exploration of the universe and witnessing singularities, countless scientifically unexplainable phenomena, such as paranormal phenomena, psychic phenomena, and urban legends, continue to occur all around the world.
‘Honestly, it would’ve been better if I hadn’t known about any of this…’
As blonde researcher Sophia walked inside the building towards her interview with the new anomalous entity, she found herself reminiscing about the time she was recruited, regretting that moment.
At that time, the mysterious aura of the person trying to scout her and the relatively simple explanations she had to hear due to security made her deduce that the organization was somewhat secretive. Yet, she had never imagined that this secrecy involved battling the various bizarre phenomena hiding behind human society.
A clandestine multinational organization was established to prevent social chaos and damage caused by abnormal phenomena.
And it was to explore and clarify scientifically unproven entities that the organization she currently worked for, the “Abnormal Phenomena Research Department,” was formed.
‘Well, at least the really dangerous work is all left for the field agents.’
Of course, she was well aware that she belonged to a comparatively safe department.
Working in a department that captures anomalies or directly throws themselves into the field put her in a position akin to a flower nurtured in a greenhouse.
However, no matter how safe her position might be,
The burden of having to face unknown entities, knowing that urban legends like a boogeyman lurking beneath your bed were real, and the pressure that if there was a mistake in her research, it could potentially cost countless lives, weighed heavily upon her.
The anomalous entity she was meant to interview this time was no different.
The dimension gate.
Even if the 163rd instance had caused a catastrophe of massive scale, the superior researchers who investigated the matter concluded that it had run out of energy long ago and had been inactive for a long time,
Thus, it was deemed that any newly summoned entity wouldn’t be powerful enough to trigger mass killings.
Based on these sufficient safety precautions, she was assigned as the interviewer, but…
How could the world always turn out so simple?
Given how previously evaluated safe entities had caused catastrophic events due to particular reasons, she couldn’t help but think along those lines.
Of course, she had pretended to be braver for the sake of her concerned junior earlier, but that didn’t mean the fear embedded in her heart would simply vanish.
“….”
But what could she do?
Before being hired here, she had had the option to forget all memories of this base and return to an ordinary life.
However, the young, brimming with youthful vigor version of herself had signed the contract with a mix of adventure and curiosity, and now that regret filled her, the reality was that she had already delved much deeper into this world, which left her with no way to go back.
She was here, facing the moment where she had to interview a mysterious anomalous entity with a dangerously lacking amount of information.
Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she slowly exhaled, reciting in her heart that one of her reasons for working here was for the sake of humanity’s peace or something like that,
She mentally vowed not to let any unnecessary words slip due to her anxiety, as she approached the room housing the anomalous entity.
—
Upon entering the room, upon seeing the real-life appearance of a lovely girl with chestnut hair,
“Whoa, wait a minute. Who is this cute little girl?”
She couldn’t help but blurt out words that contradicted her earlier resolve.
